February 13, 2016

It’s been a while since I have written any form of youth update – partly because, due to personal circumstance, I have barely seen any Under-18 football this season, and partly because there are others doing it so well on Twitter – namely the fantastic @thfcacademy, a ‘must follow’.

Under-18s

Firstly, as far I have been told, this is what will happen with the second year academy scholars at the end of the season (in order of age):

None of those being released surprised me. I wish them well, obviously, as I do any player that has been through the academy, but ultimately they did not show enough by this point. I was slightly surprised to hear that Owens and Stylianides had been given contracts rather than being offered another year of a scholarship to prove themselves – perhaps it speaks to their hard work and attitude on the training pitch.

As well as Hayford, Chris Paul was previously training with Birmingham, and Armani Daly has trialled for QPR. Good luck to them in finding clubs. Hayford always impressed me with his attitude on the pitch, even if his ability was not on a par with others.

Under-21s

Things have not been good for our Under-21s. We have not won in the Under-21 Premier League since November (seven matches without a win). Results are not all that important at that level, and so I am not overly concerned about the results themselves. But results can help build confidence and momentum in a team, and in individuals. The performances have been disappointing, and Ugo Ehiogu continues to make some odd team selections – possibly because he’s instructed to, to help development, or possibly because he’s trying to plug gaps.

There are several individual players at Under-21 level that ultimately aren’t good enough, leaving myself and other watchers wondering why we have not been promoting more of the Under-18s, or using youngsters from the first team squad if extra experience/physicality is required (as has been one of the arguments for the starts Anton Walkes has been getting in attacking midfield).

One particular player impacted has been Luke Amos, who has played mostly at left-back this season, despite being a defensive midfielder who was playing for England in that role. He has regressed this year – in my opinion, through no fault of his own. He played at centre-back in the last match; an improvement on left-back, but still not ideal.

Ehiogu has also been playing winger Anthony Georgiou at left-back too, and Anton Walkes – who was always a bit of a utility man at Under-18 level (he played defensive midfield, centre-back, full-back) as a number 10. Walkes has popped up with the odd goal, and does seem to time his arrival into the box well, but he is struggling in this position on the whole, and the experiment now needs to end.

John McDermott’s Role

Before Christmas, John McDermott’s job title was updated on the official Spurs website to ‘Head of Coaching & Player Development’, with Dean Rastrick listed as ‘Academy Manager’. I asked the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust to ask for clarity on McDermott’s role when they met with the Tottenham Hotspur board last week, which they have kindly done. The minutes of the meeting can be found here and the specific section is below:

It seems as though McDermott has taken on some of the duties that Tim Sherwood was covering – i.e. overseeing loans and the link between the academy and the first team. As a slight aside, Paul Brush has been responsible for keeping tabs on loan players. Speaking of which…

Loans

Between February 9th and March 24th Football League clubs can sign players on loan for between 28 and 93 days at a time. This is known as the emergency loan window. We know that Kyle Walker-Peters has been linked to Chesterfield, so I wonder whether that might go ahead.

We also know that Wycombe are looking for a forward, after allowing Aaron Amadi-Holloway to move on loan to free up funds. We have a relationship with Wycombe having previously sent Jordan Archer there, so I wonder whether we might send Shayon Harrison there or whether we would rather keep him around to train with the first team squad (and perhaps even be on the bench in the Europa League).

There have been some developments with our loan players. Firstly, Dominic Ball has played a couple of games in defensive midfield for Rangers, a role he did play in his youth career. He spoke about how Tottenham were monitoring him in a very interesting recent interview with the Daily Record. Perhaps he can be the next Eric Dier!

My question is – what is it that sets apart the likes of Rooney and Raúl at Real Madrid who broke through at 17 from our promising youth players? there was never any question of those two going out on loan for example.

Kane says the team want to win in all 3 competitions.
Against different teams, Poch choose the players and formation that would match and outplay them. However 12 PL, 9 EL plus 4 FAC(assuming no replays) in 12 weeks must involve rotation.
IMO next Thur Europa tie is a good time to train new players.
I believe, under Poch, a side below-listed could do no worse than losing 0-1, a deficit we could easily revert in the 2nd leg at home.

Florence is an immense culturally rich city. Our young players, especially the six who weren’t there last year, must have been awed by the sights.(Just like a person new to a great city like London would think: I could walk these streets for days.)
I think our players were affected a bit.

As for Bentaleb, I am wondering whether he was left out because he was still watching pics he took while Poch demanded attention : )

Although there was only one player from the side that beated us 0-2 last Feb, Fiorentina was no piece of cake this year. We had to field a rather strong side to get a draw. Perhaps Poch has to use the first leg to observe their strengths and weaknesses so he could come up with outmaneuvering tactics for the 2nd leg.
The idea that we might need to play our best ten(sans Lloris) next Thur. ahead of a 7 days 3 PL games congested fixture unsettles me.

This Sunday’s cup tie, Poch might use this starting XI to rest some players: